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In the early 1950s, recognizing that the United States knew dangerously little about the Soviet
Union, President Dwight Eisenhower charged the CIA with developing an overhead collection
program capable of closing critical intelligence gaps. The result was the Lockheed U-2, a remarkable
powered glider that could fly at 70,000 feet, had a range of 2,950 miles, and carried the
finest camera lenses in the world. Between 1956 and 1960, covert U-2 reconnaissance missions
enjoyed extraordinary success, yielding photographs of strategic targets across Eastern Europe
and the Soviet Union. While the Soviets rigorously tracked these overflights, their missiles
and fighters could not reach high enough to prevent them, and they were reduced to protesting
and pushing their scientists for technological breakthroughs. Finally, on May 1st 1960, a
Soviet SA-2 brought down a U-2 photographing ICBM sites near the city of Sverdlovsk. Unknown
to the United States the pilot, former Air Force Captain Francis Gary Powers, survived,
and the Soviets had recovered his plane. The United States released an untenable cover
story about a weather plane that had wandered off course and claimed that no deliberate
attempt to violate Soviet airspace had been made. Pilot, aircraft, and film in hand, Soviet
Premier Nikita Khrushchev launched a propaganda campaign that greatly humiliated the Eisenhower
administration. Khrushchev demanded an apology, and Eisenhower steadfastly refused. Powers
was tried and convicted of espionage. After serving 18 months of a 10-year sentence, he
was exchanged for Rudolf Abel, a Soviet agent serving 30 years in a Federal prison for spying.
Upon his return to the Unites States, Powers faced numerous inquiries, including a formal
board convened by CIA. Despite pressure to find fault with his actions, the board exonerated
Powers completely. He received the Intelligence Star in 1965 and, in 2000, on the 40th anniversary
of the U-2 incident, was posthumously awarded the Prisoner of War Medal, the Distinguished
Flying Cross, the National Defense Service Medal, and the CIA Director’s Medal for
extreme fidelity and extraordinary courage in the line of duty. Although the CIA’s
U-2 program literally crashed in 1960, it produced intelligence that allowed the United
States to moderate its responses in the arms race with the Soviets. Moreover, it yielded
an airframe that continues to serve US intelligence efforts today.